Cowboys plead the fifth as Canterbury crumble

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Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs v North Queensland Cowboys

North Queensland have wrapped up fifth place and secured a home elimination final after destroying the Bulldogs 44-6 at Accor Stadium on Saturday.

With the hosts missing a couple of key players - most notably Matt Burton - leading into the contest, it looked like it would be an uphill battle to retain fifth place. That would prove true within 12 minutes when a penalty goal handed the visitors an early 2-0 lead.

The 20-minute mark saw the first try of the day - Kyle Feldt's 149th in the NRL in his final regular season game for the club he helped deliver the 2015 premiership. Heilum Luki extended that lead on the half hour mark for a 14-0 lead before the hearts of the 32,000+ strong at Accor broke further when Scott Drinkwater took advantage once more right on the break. Subsequently, the home team went into halftime 20-0 behind.

The second half began just the way the first ended with some horrific edge defence as Luki continued to tear the Bulldogs apart. Fortunately, the Cowboys gave the NRL a masterclass on how to butcher a try when some poor interchange of passing denied them scoring chances. In the first 15 minutes of the second stanza, some quick hands down the right hand edge and Kyle Feldt capitalises to score out in the right corner.

Three minutes later, the mountain to come back immediately got that much higher. Canterbury panicked and put excess pressure on Drinkwater, he passed to Holmes and he chipped over the top. Holmes regathers, takes possession from Tracey and the Cowboys have put 30 on the Dogs for the second successive week. 

Canterbury crossed for their solitiary try when a bomb was dropped by Drinkwater. Sexton eventually collected the ball after a sequence that rivalled Benny Hill and the Dogs had their only try of the game. The more the Dogs tried, the more they struggled to come back. A Tracey pass was intercepted by Murray Taulagi and the flying Cowboys winger raced away to put the game beyond doubt. The Cowboys immediately targeted the weakened right edge as Kiraz was holding an arm injury, a beautiful pass out wide saw Taulagi finish with a second try and a 44-6 verdict.